Christmas

Matt and Adah in Georgia

Adah loved Grandma & Grandpa's dogs

The kids investigating a fire ant hill

Levi, Micah, Elijah, Megan, & Anna at the park

Christmas Morning

Opening their stockings Christmas Morning

Adah's Christmas Eve Meltdown:)

The kids who weren't having Christmas Eve Meltdown's:)

Christmas was very eventful this year. We spent Christmas Eve at our house with some family, Christmas morning we spent here then went to my dad's for the day and evening, came home from Christmas and put everyone to bed..then woke at 3:00 am to travel to Georgia to visit Matt's dad, stepmom, and sister. Finally coming back home Sunday night. And my brother stopped by Monday to visit before he headed back to Michigan. And although it was a busy we had an excellent Christmas this year. The kids had a wonderful Christmas with family; traveling with 5 kids went pretty well..Adah was the only one who was not too happy during the 8 hour rides, but she was stuck in a car seat the whole time, can you blame her? Overall our Christmas was great, we really enjoyed spending time with family, sharing good meals, and watching the wonder on our kids faces. We are looking forward to a New Year with new adventures and memories!!

Christmas memories

Merry Christmas!! May your family be blessed this Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus!
I love watching our kids open gifts at Christmas or anytime. To see their faces light up is wonderful. Well this Christmas Micah did something extra adorable. I wish I had this on video but of course our video camera broke on vacation this year and we haven't fixed or replaced it yet.
He was opening a gift from Grandma and the gift was in an clothing box. As he unwrapped the package his face light up when he saw the box and he exclaimed as a very excited 2 year old voice, "OH MOMMY, LOOK..I GOT A NEW BOX!!". He hadn't even opened the box the see what was inside and he was seriously excited about a plain old clothing box. And we asked ourselves, why do we spend money on toys when they are most excited about boxes, bags, and paper?
I hope I always remember the look on his face and the excitement in his voice when he unwrapped his box.
Another Christmas memory I hope to not soon forget; We were sitting down for Christmas Eve dinner with family and Matt's mom who had recently had an accident and she can't use her left arm asked Matt's grandma (her mom) to cut her meat for her and then jokingly made the comment that she still needs her mom to cut her meat. And Elijah very sweetly and seriously said to her, "It's okay Grandma, my mom has to cut my meat too". We all thought it was funny and absolutely adorable.
We all had a wonderful time on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Frosty Windows

What a freezing cold morning we had today! The windows in our house are the original windows, they are pretty old. And usually we have frost on the insides of them on cold mornings but this morning we had an sheet of ice on them. The frost designs on them were very pretty. The kids thought it was great. They scraped and drew on the freezing windows. Even Adah tried to join in the fun but she was a little too short to reach:) Hopefully by next year the frosty windows will be a distant memory since we want to replace the windows before next winter but for this year we'll make the best out of it:)

Happy Birthday Anna!

Today is Anna's 6th Birthday! 6! I can't believe it! She is growing before my eyes and I can't believe how fast it goes. She is such a beautiful and sweet little girl. We are so blessed to have her in our life.

Each year for birthday's I let the birthday boy or girl pick what they want for dinner and I cook a special dinner then we give birthday presents. It's been a fun tradition for us. Well this year, Anna requested shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and juicy steak (filet mignon), a baked potato, and broccoli for dinner. She has good taste. I guess she was spoiled on the cruise we took this summer:) It'll be a meal fit for a princess, which is exactly what she is:)

Hmmmm

Sometimes the things your kids say are funny and somtimes they say things that make you think hmmm
Today Anna was doing her handwriting where she practices her writing by copying scripture. Her verse for this week was from the book of Psalms. I explained that the word Psalm has a silent P and you don't say the P sound. When she finished her verse and hung it on the bulletin board I noticed the P in Psalm had been written then erased. I asked her what happened to the P? She told me she didn't think she needed it since you couldn't hear it, so she erased it.
It made sense to me.. but she still had to put the P back:)

Mom tip # 4

Teach your older kids to put the toilet lid down-at all costs! If you don't you may find your one year old soaked and happily splashing in a toilet filled with urine:) Or maybe just your one year old stuffing her toys in a "clean" toilet:) Or you may find that the same one year old has actually removed some toilet paper from an unflushed toilet and has carried it around the house:)
So please please teach your older kids to put the toilet lid down even if you don't have toddlers because someone like me with a toddler who has an open toilet lid radar may come to visit.